“I understand that the Workshop is a place in another continent where you live with your father.” Feng Zhiming explained slowly.

Dolly nodded.

“Now who exactly is your father?”

“My father is my father.”

“His name?”

Her expression shifted and her mouth hung wide open.

“I’ve never asked him that, I’ll ask next time I see him.”

Feng Zhiming looked away, he couldn’t hide his distraught expression anymore.

“Either she’s a genius at acting or I’ve met a truly special person today” he contemplated internally, he had never met such a clueless individual in his life.

This of course served to caution him even more, she didn’t become a Spiritual Awakener through sheer luck, she had the skill to back it up, despite the lack of complex thoughts.

“My turn.” she said with an excited expression.

“Ok, ask away.”

“Tell me a story.” her head bounced as she spoke.

Feng Zhiming didn’t react anymore, he had come to terms with the kind of person she was.

He cleared his throat, he knew the best way to keep the curious busy was to give them an ethical dilemma to agonize over.

“Long ago there was a farmer, a good and honest man.”

She nodded her head as she listened.

“The farmer tended to his farm and he was very proud of his work, the vegetation grew wonderfully.”

Feng Zhiming waved his hand and a projection of a farm with growing crops appeared before them, projecting into the night sky like a play.

Dolly’s mouth fell wide open as she observed the scene.

“But as it is the case with many other things, nothing lasts forever and someone became jealous of the farmer, his neighbor could not grow such beautiful crops.”

The projection changed to reflect an envious expression of a man looking over at the farmer who was tending to his crops.

“The man who was envious knew he could never grow something as beautiful and became enraged, he went deep into the forest to find a wicked witch.”

Lyra sneezed beneath the deck as she meditated next to Ellia, who was snoring loudly.

“Who’s talking about me?” she thought to herself.

Meanwhile the image projection changed to reflect the envious man from before talking to a witch.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“The witch knew what to do, she cast a curse on the farmer's land, a curse of crows, the crows would descend and ravage his crops.”

Dolly frowned as she saw the scene.

“Luckily for the farmer he heard of the witch’s plan and built a scarecrow, he instructed the scarecrow to always be ready to scare away crows at any time”

The image changed to reflect a man-like creature made of straw strung to a wooden pole in the middle of the fields.

“And so the man’s field grew wonderfully and without any issue, for many years the scarecrow did its job. That was until one very uneventful day the scarecrow began to think, it thought about its role on the farm and his role in his life”

Dolly’s face reflected utter surprise.

“The scarecrow began to have doubts, why would his existence solely be to protect plants, if he was the one to protect the plants, then where was the one to protect him, it was unfair.”

The image changed to reflect a scarecrow with a frown across its face.

“That was when the witch approached the scarecrow, the witch asked the scarecrow, do you not wish to roam the world, aren’t you tired of being a tool to another. If you do, then eat this orb and you will become a real man.”

The image changed to reflect the witch handing the scarecrow an orb of light.

“The witch left and the Scarecrow began thinking about his life, did he truly have nothing else he wanted to do, would he truly chase away crows his entire life. No, he did have things he wanted to do. He thought about the farmer who hadn’t even mended his ripped clothing after all these years, the farmer only cared about the crops. Why should he help the farmer, an ungrateful creator.”

The image changed to reflect the scarecrow eating the orb of light and turning into a man.

“The scarecrow could not take the strain of being a man on a pole his entire life and so he left the farm and the farmer.”

A tear fell from Dolly’s eye.

“The next morning the farm was ruined and the farmer devastated. Yet the scarecrow was smiling as he explored the world, the witch was happy and the envious man was delighted that his ugly farm was still better than the farmer’s non-existent one.”

Feng Zhiming closed his palm and the image shattered.

“Well, what did you think of the story?”

Dolly was still stunned.

“That’s it? I don’t like stories with sad endings.”

Feng Zhiming raised an eyebrow.

“Sad?”

Dolly looked at him with an equally confused expression.

“The poor farmer’s crops died. Of course it's sad.”

Feng Zhiming chuckled.

“What? What’s so funny?” she asked with puffed cheeks.

“What if instead of starting the story from the farmer's perspective, I started from the scarecrow’s?”

Dolly tilted her head and looked even more confused.

“Why should the scarecrow live as a shield to crops that enjoyed the love and attention of the farmer, as it endured the attacks of crows? Does it not have a right to live its own life as much as the farmer or the crops?”

Dolly’s face lit up as if she finally understood something before darkening again.

a man with black hair and a woman wearing a hood both wearing cultivator robes on a crows nest on the mast of the ship, sitting on two wooden reclining chairs looking towards the night sky of a starry desert in manhwa style [https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIG1.6tnj_J4vtt4_b69F6ws4?w=1024&h=1024&rs=1&pid=ImgDetMain]

“I-I really need to think about this.” she said as she bit her thumb while staring into the night sky.

“That should keep her busy for a while.” he thought as he bit down on yet another apple he brought out of his storage ring.

Feng Zhiming often thought about this story as well, he remembered that he heard it from, from someone?

“That’s interesting, I really don’t remember who I heard it from.” he thought to himself as he looked up at the night sky, beautiful, beautiful like he had never seen, it was absolutely majestic, stardust and shooting stars decorating a centrepiece of a ringed moon.

This was living, even though he knew this moment was temporary, the feeling it gave him would be eternal.

“Whoever it was, they really opened my eyes.”

Under the veil of the starry night sky he felt the gentle embrace of sleep take him, maybe it was the naive nature of Dolly rubbing off on him but he actually fell asleep in the chair, of course he knew Anissa who was oath-bound to keep him safe was watching but he truly felt a strange peace taking a hold of him.